Vónin has supplied Meridian Salmon Farms with a complete mooring system for a set of fourteen 100m diameter cages at its Yell location in Shetland at short notice
“The Meridian setup is a set of fourteen cages in two rows,” Vónin’s Sigvald Jacobsen explained, adding that the cages are secured in position with 24 anchors with a network of chains and ropes to secure the cages.
“There are a few differences between this system and others, notably that there is more weight in the chains, as well as a higher breaking strength. The ropes are heavy-duty Vónin Royal rope with a 67t breaking strength.
Unlike the usual chains used to link the network of buoys to the connection plates underneath them, Vónin opted to use 5m straps made in lightweight but super-strength Dyneema rope, and one problem was to find a knot that would not compromise the rope’s strength.
“A rope generally loses 50% of its breaking strength when it is knotted, so we tried a lot of different knots to find something that would allow the rope to maintain its strength. The solution we came up with was to splice eyes and to bend this onto a ring that is then shackled to the connecting plate,” he said.
“This had the result that there was only a 5% loss of breaking strength,” he said and added that Meridian Salmon Farms is a relatively new customer for Vónin, and although they have supplied them with components before, this is the first full mooring system for this customer.
“The Faroes is close to Scotland, Shetland and Orkney, with two or three sailings a week to Scrabster and others to Aberdeen, so if a customer orders something, it can be delivered within a few days”
Mooring equipment from Vónin will be on display at the Aquaculture UK show in Aviemore, 28-29th May.
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